憐
lián

pity

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 粦 represents the sound.

Components

忄
忄 Meaning component
xin, xīn heart

heart

粦
粦 Sound component
lín will-o'-the wisp, phosphorus

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartlenrˤiŋ love; pity

說文解字

《說文》：“憐，哀也。从心，粦聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

怜 lián pity Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 令 represents the sound. Simplified form of 憐.

Components

忄
忄 Meaning component
xin, xīn heart

忄 is a component form of 心.

令
令 Sound component
lìng command

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangriːn
reːŋ

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang